Elder David Rawson -- Santa Maria Brazil Mission

Monday, February 19, 2018

1. Carnaval and a new transfer
Well things are a popping here in Brazil for the yearly national party called "carnaval". It´s basically a week straight of partying and apostasy. Luckily my mission is basically the Idaho of Brazil, so things here are pretty calm. We started a new transfer and me and Elder J. Silva are pretty excited! We've got some great things planned. I absolutely love the spirit we feel day to day, makes everything SO worth it.

2. Teaching Seila
So we've been working a lot with the family of Eduarda who got baptized recently. All her siblings and her mom are members, so now we´re just working with her grandma! She´s truly a special lady, but can never make it to church cause she takes care of the great grandma. This week we prepared a special lesson on Christ´s Atonement and the spirit was so strong. It was amazing.

Joseph Smith once said that "all things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to the Atonement of Jesus Christ" and I truly testify that that is true! We owe everything to Him. Now we just need to have faith in him, repent of our sins, be baptized, and endure to the end.

3. Domingo do Amigo- Santa Marta
So we decided to apply the domingo do amigo (friend's Sunday) here, cause we´re in the best ward in the mission! So we challenged every member to bring a friend, and sacrament meeting was packed!!! The talks were perfect and everyone left better than they entered.

4. Miracles at every moment
Just this morning one of the couples we´re teaching called us and asked if we could go to marriage office to help them get married! We were SO stoked, casue they´re being taught for more than a year, and this morning we put in the paperwork to get them married! God is good to us.

Monday, February 12, 2018

1. Mission Tour with Elder Del Guerso
We kicked off this week with our mission tour! The entire mission gathered in Santa Maria for the conference. As we were reverently sitting and waiting to start I was informed that I had been chosen to be interviewed by Elder Del Guerso of the 70. We had a great conversation about how my mission experience is going among other things. Five other missionaries got interviewed as well. It was a super cool experience! He sure did put fire in my bones! Afterwards we were richly instructed on how to be more effective missionaries and we learned some new techniques. I also got to see all my old friends/comps so that was fun!

all my old comps who are currently on the mission #brothers4life

my last pic with Elder Loureiro before he goes home </3

the ancient Bom Fim squad

my new comp, Elder J Silva

2. Diogo´s baptism
This week we happily filled up the baptism font (1 day early this time) for Diogo's baptism! He's a young man that´s been receiving missionary visits for 6 months, but his grandma never let him go to church. We were able to use our charm, with the help of his neighbor the stake patriarch, to win her over. His baptism was so amazing! He even chose the patriarch to baptism him. It was dumping rain most of the day so when we sang "when I am baptized" it was pretty cool.

Diogo´s baptism

3. São Braz- PDay adventure
Last week we went to an animal preservation place (zoo) and saw a ton of cool animals! Exotic birds, tigers, monkeys, flamingos, and lots more!

The Elders at São Braz

the puma

Love you all! I invite you all to read the Book of Mormon every day cause I know it´ll make the greatest difference in your life!

Monday, February 5, 2018

1. Be Ready for Everything!!!
What a week! This week we were happy to see the baptism of Eduarda and Sebastian! After all was said and done, it was quite the day! Santa Maria has been having some issues with water faltages (translates to "missing"), and we got word an hour before the baptism that the church had no water. NO! We had half the ward there waiting as well. Fortunately, a neighbor had water so we grabbed buckets and went to work! We were able to get the water to a decent level and they were able to baptized. The Bishop gave a great testimony about the 'water miracle' and truly it was a great experience for all.

Sebastian and Eduarda baptism

2. Sebastian's story
Sebastian is the coolest 10 year old ever! His family already are members, but they wanted him to make the decision to be baptized. During my first week in the area I had the strongest prompting that we needed to visit his family, so we changed our plans and went to his house. As we were arriving they had grabbed the phone to call a member to give a blessing to Sebastian, who was pretty sick, but when they saw us at the door they knew that God had sent help! Through this experience Sebastian prepared himself to be baptized. I´m so grateful to have followed the Spirit that day!

Sebastian and his family

3. BE BOLD
Next week we have our mission tour with an area 70, and he challenged us to dedicate 2 hours to inviting people to hear more about Christ. As we prayed about how to do this we felt that we could take a big picture of Christ to the street and talk with everyone! We sure did get some strange looks but it was a powerful experience for me. See pic below.

Monday, January 29, 2018

HELLO family and friends! Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers, they help more than you know!

1.FHE with President/Sister Louza
This week we got invited to a family night with our mission president and his wife! So we invited some of our investigators and were getting ready to go when we got a phone call from the AP´s telling us that we were responsible for the message! We had a little freak out moment cause we had nothing ready, but we decided to say a prayer that everything would work out. We ended up talking about the life of Christ, and after reading The Living Christ the room went silent. The Spirit was SO amazing.

President Louza then got up and invited everyone to be baptized and our investigator accepted! It was such an amazing night and I was grateful that the Spirit helped us to touch these peoples hearts! When you don´t know what to say, testify of Christ.

FAMILY NIGHT with Eduarda and Leila

At FHE I also led the group in a killer game of "Pedro Tiago e João"

2. Great investigators

Our purpose as missionaries is to invite everyone to come unto Christ and prepare them to enter into God´s presence, which can only happen when they truly repent of their sins and are baptized with the proper authority. We´re working with a great group of investigators, and 3 currently have baptism dates. I absolutely love this work and am grateful to share with others what has come to make me happy.

Monday, January 22, 2018

1. God´s blessing the work
I´m blessed to say that everything is going super well down here in Brazil! We've been seeing miracles as our investigators come to accept Christ and His restored church! We teach lots of youth, who are super open to our message, but we are also teaching 4 couples! Well, none of them are legally married and therefore cannot be baptized yet, so we've been working hard to get them married! Brazilian laws about marriage are kinda stupid, cause if we had a Las Vegas close by we could solve this issue real quick. But it´s been a great adventure:) #CallMeCupid2. President Nelson
This week we were all privileged to hear from and see our new prophet, President Nelson! I know he was called of God and will guide this Church exactly where God wants it! Two Elders here had a cool experience- They invited a teenager and his mom to watch the announcement in the church on Tuesday. The mom didn't want her son to be baptized because of her view of our church and 'false prophets'. But after the broadcast, she turned to the missionaries and said "That man is a prophet of God and my son needs to be baptized here." So right after they put on white clothes and went to the river and he was baptized! Powerful experience.3. Stake conference
This week we had stake conference in Santa Maria! It was such a great day because I was able see all the members from Salgado Filho and Centro where I have already served! I felt pretty famous when I saw that I know almost everyone in the stake. But what made me happier was that I saw 3 of my converts there, firm in the Gospel! Such a proud moment. Rose is doing great and that was for a sure a happy reunion (see photo 4 below).

Love you all! Keep reading the Book of Mormon so that God can bless you!
Elder Rawson
Alma 34:15

Monday, January 15, 2018

1. A splendid week!
HELLO Y´ALL:) This week was full of miracles. The Lord´s hand is ever so present in my life and I love it! The highlight of the week was for sure Kauan's baptism! He was crazy excited. His parents even came out to watch and now we´re working to get them legally married! I was super grateful for the ward's support- it was packed and there wasn't room for everyone so people crowded in the back and into the hallway. Some investigators made it out to church as well that we weren't sure if they would be able, so we´re being super blessed with the progress!

Kauan´s baptism

selfie with the crew

THE BAPTISM WAS WELL ATTENDED

2. Three service projects
As missionaries we´re supposed to always search for planned and unplanned opportunities to serve, and this week we finally were able find some! We painted a grandma´s house and as we were cruising along our day to day plans we saw 2 moving projects that we helped with! People think we´re crazy to offer help with manual labor with a white shirt and tie, but I love it:)

Grateful for opportunities to do service

Our painting project

3. Enjoy the little moments
My time here on the mission has taught me to enjoy the little moments! Just making the best of every little oppurtunity you have. Whether its taking a cold shower after frying in the sun all day, or ordering pizza when you complete "a sister mission" aka 1 year and 6 months. I hope you all can take the time to enjoy the little moments and seek Christ in all that you do.

Monday, January 8, 2018

1. Live from Santa Maria
HELLO FAMILY AND FRIENDS:) This week went so fast I don´t even remember what happened! We´ve just been going to work, doing our best all day every day! So yesterday we get to church to stand in the door and greet the people who come in... And the people just kept coming and coming and coming! We had almost 200 people in sacrament meeting! Compared to the branch of 50 where I was I felt like I was in Utah! I´m blessed to be in such a great place.

2. The blessing of members
I´m always so grateful for all that the members do for us! They always go out of their way to make sure we have good meals and are taken care of. We have a super cool Irmão named Alessandro that is helping us and being a member missionary! We got a phone call from him and he said that his son has a friend that´s ready to be baptized! He already got the parents permission and everything, we just needed to show up "to teach the lessons." So Saturday we´ll have a Kauan´s baptism! I truly feel like I`m in a Utah ward #blessed

Have a good week, and remember to stick with those new year resolutions;)